When the time comes
by kaori1294
Summary: What if group 7 had met someone during their mission in the Land of Waves that could change the fate of one of their members?
1. THIS IS IT!

It has been years since the morning fog was this dense.

She always woke up early for her training though she really hated not being able to sleep more, unfortunately it was the only time of the day that allowed her to do it in secret.

Just like he told her to…

 _-Train every day and don´t let anybody know about it. Your skills must be kept a secret until the time comes-_

 _\- But, will I know when it comes? will you tell me? –_

 _-I won´t be able to tell you, but you´ll know, you just have to be patient and trust me ok? -_

 _-Yes, sensei-_

-NAGISA! –

The sound of her own name boosted by the wind broke through her concentration, making her trip and almost fall to the ground. She sighed. Training was over.

Her grandfather was supposed to arrive today from the Land of Fire. She was really hoping he had found some help there. He was the main constructor of the bridge of the Land of Waves, so his life was in desperate need of protection because of Gatoh´s fear of losing control over the islands, now more than ever, cause the construction was almost done.

Maybe this was the time that he was talking about… she could feel it. It all made sense now, since she only began training for the sake of her family. This was it, this was definitely it! She almost choked with her breakfast over this thought, it certainly was scary… but at the same time so exciting!

He would be so proud.

Nagisa spent that morning feeling really hyped. The chores of the house seemed less annoying, making it easier to finish them in no time. It was the first time in centuries that she felt so much excitement over something, even tho she didn´t even knew if it was certain, but it felt good nonetheless. She almost felt like singing herself out to the ocean. She could even dance. But she stopped. A strong blast of wind surrounded her, making her still. -Ninjas- she whispered with surprise, and suddenly all the excitement disappeared leaving fear in replacement. Something was wrong. -Please take me to them- she said, and began to run as fast as she could. THIS WAS IT!

Her heart was pounding too fast and she couldn´t help it. The uncertain situation that she was going to face made it impossible to stay calm. She was now running through the branches of the forest, the ninjas were close, she could feel a great amount of chakra flowing from the bay. Suddenly she saw it, an immense stream of water heading towards her. There was no time to lose, she began making water hand poses almost instinctively and when the stream was only inches away from her, she placed her arms like in a dive with both palms facing each other, cutting through the stream and splitting it in two drifts. Then it stopped. She heard screaming.

-Grandpa! - she cried in relief when she saw him safe and sound, and then ran towards him.

-Nagi, what are you doing out here? - he asked in concern.

-Mama told me to go looking for you- she lied. Close call, the time hadn´t come after all.

-Who is she old man? – said someone behind her. All of a sudden, she noticed that there were three other people standing there, three genins about her age, a blond and a dark haired guy and a weird pink haired girl who was trying to help an unconscious man whose face was almost entirely covered. They all had the konoha ninja headband.

\- She´s Nagisa, my eldest granddaughter- said Tazuna with a smile – Oh! and Nagisa, these are Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and that over there is Kakashi sensei, they´re here to protect me- he said, pointing at them respectively.

 _-they´re here to protect me-_

Those words resounded in Nagisa´s ears like loud church bells, she sighed, so much for the "this is it" excitement, of course hiring a real ninja would be the reasonable way to protect her family. What was she thinking anyways?

-Shouldn´t we help him? - she said referring to Kakashi, trying to divert the attention to someone else besides her.

It worked. They all helped carrying Kakashi sensei to the house in complete silence. They were all too shocked about what happened and words weren´t able to come out. Nagisa was curious about that, but she decided to save it for later, she could tell nobody was up for an interrogation at the moment.

Nagisa's mother took care of Kakashi when they arrived.

She barely even talked to the ninjas that day, even though she really wanted to; the only ninja she ever knew was her sensei but she wasn´t really allowed to ask him as much as she could so these Konoha ninjas were the perfect opportunity to learn a bit more about them. The problem was that she really didn´t know how to approach them. She was a bit intimidated and that was odd, she usually didn´t have socializing problems like these.

And so, the night came. It was late and everybody already went to sleep, but Nagisa simply couldn´t, there was too much going on in her mind. Just before they all went to sleep her grandfather told her what happened at the bay, and everything about that Zabuza ninja who attacked them seemed just too suspicious for her, she didn´t really know why, but still she couldn´t stop thinking about it. The wind came blowing in silence through her open window, it filled her room with cold air and it made her sheets ruffle, almost like forcing her not to sleep. She closed her eyes and felt it, it was smooth and it flowed through her body with tenderness. Maybe a little dance would make her feel at ease. Everyone was sleeping and it was really late so her secret was going to be safe… just a little dance…

Her backyard was silent. The ocean nearby glowed with moonlight, and the wind was blowing smooth, a perfect scenery for some nerve calming training as she called it. She began with her hand poses, the ones corresponding to the wind. She took a deep breath and started moving. It was like a series of taijutsu poses done in slow motion. The wind started to move around her according to her poses, like if she was moving with it, slowly, gracefully, in complete concentration, and the wind responded to her movements, with the same grace but with a strength beyond compare. Her dark hair, moved by the wind, started to block her vision, so she closed her eyes, wallowing in an even more deep concentration than before. Now, she wasn´t really thinking, she just moved along with the wind, calmly, peacefully, in harmony. It wasn´t long before it all stopped. That kind of jutsu required an enormous amount of chakra and she wasn´t strong enough to maintain it for long, but it was all worth it. The wind had taken all of her worries away, she would be able to sleep at last.

She took a breath once more and then opened her eyes, looked back at the house and started walking towards it. She was so calm that she didn´t even noticed the sitting person on the porch of the house until he was practically in front of her. She froze.

-Did you saw that? - Nagisa asked with a horrified glance.

\- I did- said the dark haired ninja.


	2. Those black eyes

Sasuke looked at her, sheseemed really shocked somehow, but he didn´t actually cared so he answered with a half-hearted expression.

Nagisa wasn´t able to say another word, she was too startled, her mind was blank, what was she going to do? he didn't seem curious at all, but still, it would be too awkward if he didn´t ask her about it, and what was she going to say then? This wasn´t supposed to be happening, she hadn´t prepared a good explanation for it yet…other than the truth.

It was taking too long, Sasuke just stared at her indifferently, waiting for her to speak; he actually was curious about it, but he was hoping that she would just tell him before he had to ask, she seemed like the kind of person who would do that. She just stayed there with a petrified look on her face. He sighed and thought that maybe he should say something, but before he got to ask if she was okay, she disappeared.

Nagisa just ran back to her room. She came to the conclusion that she wasn´t able to handle the situation and instinctively ran away. How uncool was that? He would probably think that she was some sort of weirdo. But what else could she do? She was a terrible liar. It would have taken her at least two days to come up with a reasonable thing to say and she didn´t had that much time. Or did she? Maybe if she could manage to avoid the subject for a couple of days she would be able to explain it to him without telling everything, or even better, by doing that he would probably just forget it and she wouldn´t have to explain it at all.

That was the plan.

Nagisa woke up at dawn the next day. She could barely sleep because of the nerves, even tho she already had a plan, the fact of dealing with it was still nerve wrecking. She didn´t train that morning.

…

He was staring at her; she could feel it. Those black eyes pierced through her like arrows. Nagisa was feeling too much of a coward to stare back at him, so she just focused on finishing her breakfast as fast as she could, following the plan.

-Hey! Why are you so tense Nagisa? - said the blond ninja. He had just entered the kitchen and seeing Nagisa in such a dreadful gloom made him curious. He was too much of an idiot to notice things like that, so Nagisa´s mood was much too obvious at the stance for him to notice.

Nagisa almost choked. She was so focused on Sasuke that she lost all consciousness over her surroundings and Naruto´s powerful voice startled her. As soon as he sat down at the breakfast table she felt the black eyed arrows gradually pulling away from her. That was a relief.

-It´s nothing- she said suddenly recovering her usual cheerfulness. – and please call me Nagi! the only one that calls me by my full name is my mother and it feels kinda weird hearing it from someone else- she added almost laughing.

-You look really cute with a smile Nagi-chan! - said Naruto. He actually liked her better like that. His first impression of her wouldn´t have made him think that she could be this approachable.

She giggled and smiled at him again. Avoiding Sasuke´s glances was going to be easier now that Naruto was around.

-Kakashi sensei is finally awake! - yelled the pink haired girl, suddenly entering the kitchen. Both ninjas stood up instantly and followed her to their sensei´s bedroom. Nagisa followed them too, but she just stayed outside next to the bedroom's door, she didn´t feel like it was her place to be in but she also wanted to hear what they were going to say. Her mother and grandfather were there too.

They explained him what happened after he passed out and then Tazuna introduced Nagisa and her mother to him. Kakashi greeted them cordially and then asked Tazuna to clarify the situation for him, because he had payed for a low rank ninja escort when he actually required a high rank one.

Tazuna sighed.

-We just don´t have the money. We´re a very poor country and we couldn´t have payed it even if we wanted to- he said laughing sheepishly, but then continued with resignation: -feel free to abort the mission, I understand, after all, I was the one who lied and I shouldn´t make you risk your lives because of it. -

Kakashi remained silent for a moment. Zabuza's apparent death was odd, cause when a ninja hunter killed their target they usually began to destroy it on the spot, but the ninja whom they'd met had taken Zabuza's body elsewhere. This, coupled with the fact that Zabuza had been "killed" with weapons that were rarely fatal, led him to believe that Zabuza was still alive, and that he would certainly be back, so things weren´t going to be easy for them because they barely defeated him last time. He told this to Tazuna and everyone else there.

-Please stay! -

Nagisa finally entered the room.

-Please stay- she repeated. She couldn´t let them leave just like that because deep inside she knew that they were the ones who could help the country, and protect her family. She wasn´t sure if she was strong enough to protect them by herself against a ninja, she didn´t even had a real chance to test her powers like that. What if her powers weren´t enough? Her sensei wasn´t there to guide her and she was too scared of making wrong decisions. She wasn´t even a real ninja. But they were. She could lean on them to make things right.

-I know that what my grandfather did was wrong, but you have to understand that it was the only thing he could do in order to keep trying to free our country from Gatoh´s control. Please, just stay until the bridge is done and we won´t bother you anymore. Please…- she said without taking her eyes off Kakashi, trying to ignore those dark eyes staring again at her.

Kakashi seemed like he had already made a decision.

-We couldn´t call ourselves ninjas if we didn´t stay- he said in what it looked like a smile under his half mask. -Right guys? - he added looking to the three genins.

-Right- said Sakura and Sasuke, both with very different expressions but agreeing at last to what their sensei said.

\- Alright! Don´t worry Nagi-chan! we will protect your grandpa and save this country-ttebayo! – yelled Naruto in excitement.

Nagisa sighed in relief and smiled afterwards, her mother and grandfather smiled too.

-Gatoh will kill all of you, nobody can save this country from him- said a little boy who just showed up at the door. It was Nagisa´s younger brother, Inari. He went to hug his grandfather.

-Inari, don´t talk like that- said his mother but he just ignored her. He looked angrily to the ninjas and then left the room.

-What the hell is wrong with that kid? - said Naruto in a rush of anger.

Nagisa looked down sadly. -Just let him be- she said.

…

Kakashi was still recovering from his injuries but that didn´t stop him from giving his students something to train for.

Nagisa quietly followed them and spied them from the top of a nearby tree. She wanted to see how ninjas actually trained, maybe she would learn something from it.

The training consisted in climbing a tree without using their hands. The goal was to learn how to accumulate chakra in specific parts of the body, in this case, their feet; being the lowest part of the body made it very difficult to move and maintain a considerable amount of chakra there, and that was perfect for what Kakashi wanted to teach them. "Manipulating chakra is one of the most important things a ninja must learn to do in order to perform whatever jutsu they want" he said, and then instructed them to make a mark in the tree with a kunai to record their progress. After they made a few tries, Kakashi left.

It was kind of funny watching them train. Sakura climbed the tree in only a couple of tries, her chakra control was obviously superior than the rest of them; Naruto started badly but he slowly improved with every try, he wasn´t going to give up easily; and Sasuke seemed to have a natural talent to develop quickly; it felt like Naruto and him were in some sort of competition by the way they looked at each other. Nagisa felt kind of jealous, training with friends seemed to be very fun.

She felt someone approaching, it was Inari. He stared at the ninjas while they were training for a few minutes and then left with a bitter expression on his face. Nagisa sighed gloomily.

…

The house lights were already turned off when Nagisa went to the basement to get some blankets for their guests. It was a chilly night so her mother asked her to go look for them.

As she began to make her way up the stairs with the pile of blankets, she lost herself in thoughts of how excited she was to try what Kakashi taught their students that day. She observed them very meticulously for some hours and she felt ready to go and try it herself. Her mind wandered a bit more and remembered that thanks to that training she managed to stay out of sight from Sasuke, so her plan was going just fine. She smiled for herself.

She was almost at the top of the staircase when she suddenly noticed a pair of black eyes waiting for her at the door.

-Kyaaaaa!-

…

I´m so sorry if you find this chapter a bit boring… Please look forward to the next one! Some revelations of Nagisa´s past are coming…

Thank you!


End file.
